Time Management for Trainers.

When it comes to training, there are things we need to do, things we should do, and things we would like to do. We all understand that. However, we often find ourselves reacting and doing what seems best at the moment. We don’t necessarily focus on the top priorities.

How many times have you found yourself facilitating a training session and realized you were running out of time with too much content left to cover? At this point, you either skip content or speed up to make it to the finish line!

The problem doesn’t start in the classroom. It happens because we want to achieve more in our training programs than we have time for.

One way to address this is to use the Eisenhower matrix to manage tasks. The matrix helps you focus energy and time on the most critical elements of your program. All other tasks fall in line behind the most important; they are rescheduled, deleted or delegated to someone else for completion.

What is the Eisenhower matrix?

The Eisenhower matrix was developed by former president Eisenhower to help prioritize his work. It forces you to assign an urgency and importance to each task, which puts the task into one of four quadrants. The result is a list of targeted tasks in each quadrant and a strategy for each list.

How do we apply the matrix to training?

Think about the goals of your training program and each task you need to complete. Then place each task in one of the four quadrants. Use these descriptions to help you decide.

Using this matrix will help you achieve more by focusing on less. As a bonus, your learners will thank you for not overwhelming them with content.